Topband: Contest conditions.

[edbruns@juno.com]

I also thought conditions were great. I worked around 200
with 100 watts and what amounts to a 30 foot vertical with
no radials at all. No beverages, no EWEs, no separate RX
antennas, none. Minimal antenna on 160 for sure.

The antenna is a LAZY U with the bottom eight feet off the 
ground. The 30 feet goes up along side my 5" diameter
mast that supports an old TA-33. There is roughly 117
feet of wire pulled off horizontally top and bottom that goes
to a tree in the front yard. The vertical section is about one
foot from that 5" diameter mast and is center fed just like 
a dipole. I adjusted those horizontal wires for lowest SWR
at 1830..the rigs tuner does the rest. Again, no radials.

I managed to work G, KH6, HA, OK, ON, I, V4, VP2E, KV4, 8P9,
and 42 states including CA, OR, WA. I could not do that will a
very low inverted vee..35 feet at the center. All S& P, just playing
around.

I stayed out of the pileups. I didn't waste time calling. If I didn't make
it in two or three calls I would note the freq, move on and come back
later. Packet was on, but once a station was spotted, forget it. It did
help with calls..but I corrected a few wrong putouts as well.

The rig is an ICOM IC-746 and I am impressed by the DSP features
it has...but the noise blanker and preamps were off by necessity. It
does have a 500 Hz filter... wish it were 250.

Ed, W3EKT.


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